While the Minnesota Wild are hardly calling it a rebuilding project, it’s been quite obvious of late that they have been doing just that. Afterall, the team has traded away Charlie Coyle, Nino Niederreiter and Mikael Granlund in the second half of the season last year and continue to look like they are getting younger and younger.
In an in-depth piece about Wild forward Zach Parise, The Athletic’s Michael Russo (subscription required) writes that The Athletic has learned that general manager Paul Fenton has discussed the possibility of trading Parise at the draft and in the weeks since then in hopes of finding a trade partner. That would be a tall challenge for the GM as the 34-year-old Parise still has six years remaining on his contract at $7.53MM AAV (he originally signed a 13-year, $98MM contract back in 2012). Regardless, the scribe believes the team is seriously considering it, although there would be some obstacles.
First on the list, is whether Parise, who has a full no-movement clause, would be willing to accept a trade. While from Minneapolis and stating quite clearly that he loves it in Minnesota, the veteran also revealed that he’s concerned about the fact that the Wild seem to be looking toward a rebuild, something a veteran of 15 years isn’t likely to want to go through.
“I think I want to win. I want to win here, and I do love everything away from the rink. We’ve got so many friends through the kids away from the rink, away from hockey. It’s so great. It is great, so that’s the hard part,” Parise said, when asked if he’d be willing to accept a trade. “But you get to that point where you want to win. That’s all you want to do. Trust me, we’d all love to win here. I think this place would be absolute insanity if we won here. So that’s the goal. I mean, I just don’t know. Let’s put it this way, they haven’t come to me asking if I want to get traded somewhere.”
The second problem is that no playoff teams are going to be willing to pay $7.53MM for six straight years at his age, which will mean that Minnesota almost assuredly would have to retain some of his salary, perhaps even half of it. And if the club does that, would they be able to get a quality return even then? Parise did post 28 goals last season and could prove to be a valuable asset to many teams, but would a team be willing to take on six more years of him and hand over a major asset or two as well? After all, he’ll be 35 when the season starts and will be still be paid that amount when he turns 40. That’s a tall order even if they only have to pay $3.77MM per season.
Obviously moving Parise would quicken the pace of a rebuild as Parise’s contract (along with Ryan Suter who signed the same contract alongside Parise back in 2012) are definitely holding the team back from a complete rebuild. Of course, Parise also was the team’s leading scorer last year on a team that struggled to put the puck into the net and the team could get quite a negative reaction from fans if the team sends him off, especially if the return is a meager one. However, this might be the best time to move on from Parise after his 28-goal season as he is only getting older and even fewer teams will have interest in trading for him in the future if he struggles next season.
Play stupid games (or sign stupid contracts), win stupid prizes
Ask the Canucks…still have to deal with the Luongo signing…
Now it’s 8 year max for the player & 7 years as a FA.
If I am acquiring team the Wild would have to pay all but a $1 million the last 2 or 3 years & depending on the acquiring team take back another player on a shorter contract.
Parise to Boston for Backes. Minn pays 50% salary. Basically they get out of the contract in two year for 20 mil and the Bruins get a player at 3 mil with the same character for 6 years that the could buy out in later years.
That’s interesting if Parise’s contract is actually worthwhile to buy out. I think Boston has to send a pick to make it happen but that’s still worth it.
That would have to be the case cause both teams have very little salary cap space available , if they trade Backes for Parise
link to spotrac.com
link to spotrac.com
I’m starting to wonder if this Fenton guy knows what he’s doing.
The fan reaction would be poor to say the least.
Fenton is quickly and quietly approaching Chiarelli levels of worst GM. At least Chia doesnt have that comfy chair anymore.
He lost me when he traded Coyle, Granlund and Nino. A rebuilding team doesn’t trade young players that are signed to reasonable deals. You get rid of the older players for younger cheaper assets.
I think the Coyle trade was alright. They gave up 1.5 years of him and got a very nice piece back in return. The other two were odd to say the least though.
13 years was just plain stupid.
I thought Donato was a good pickup. I do get that the Wild basically got the same results with the same team several years in a row, and something had to change. But, you rebuild hoping to find guys like Niederreiter and Granlund. I’ll give Fenton the benefit of the doubt for another year or so, but to date I’m not really impressed.